The patents protecting the M-DISC technology assert that the data layer is a glassy carbon material that is substantially inert to oxidation and has a melting point of 200–1000 °C (392–1832 °F).

M-DISC developer Millenniata, Inc. was co-founded by Brigham Young University professors Barry Lunt, Matthew Linford, CEO Henry O'Connell and CTO Doug Hansen.

The debt holders subsequently started a new company, Yours.co, to sell M-DISCs and related services[citation needed].

[20] The glassy carbon layers, in theory if preserved correctly in an environment like a salt mine, could store the data for over 10,000 years before going outside of readable specifications.

[citation needed] Verbatim Japan claims that M-DISCs now use a titanium layer to prevent moisture ingression and to provide environmental stability.

From 2010 to 2012, the French National Laboratory of Metrology and Testing (LNE) used high-temperature accelerated aging testing,[23] at 90 °C (194 °F) and 85% relative humidity inside a CLIMATS Excal 5423-U, for 250 to 1000 hours with a mix of inorganic DVD+R discs from MPO, Verbatim, Maxell, Syylex and DataTresor.

[citation needed] While recorded discs are readable in conventional DVD and BD drives, they can only be burned by drives with firmware that supports the slightly higher power mode that M-Disk requires for burning its inorganic layers,[dubious – discuss] as such writing speed is typically 2x speed.

[31] Linear Tape-Open (LTO) is rated for up to 30 years in a climate-controlled environment[citation needed] and is currently in use by most industries, including broadcast and corporate digital data systems, with up to 45 TB (40.92 TiB) of compressed storage per cartridge on LTO's ninth generation.

However, unlike optical media, they are limited to 5–25 years of operation lifespan due to inevitable mechanical failure or magnetic instability.

Accelerated thermal tests are only representative from a materials science perspective, this data is mostly used for manufacturing development, These discs would never pass 50 °C in real-world situations as even basic burial archival depth of 1–2 meters would keep them in the >20 °C range.